After weeks of sleeper, busts, injuries and cuts, we’re finally here. FOOTBALL! For the first week of IDP rankings, there are not many changes from my preseason rankings. Teams change from year to year, and IDP stats tend to be less opponent-based than their offensive counterparts, so we’re left primarily with overall talent.

There are two reasons to change my preseason rankings for Week 1, and they both involve downgrades:

Downgrade Rookies and Sleepers Who Are Not Starting

I was very high on Dion Jordan, Jon Bostic and Kenny Vaccaro all preseason. But Jordan will likely split snaps with Olivier Jordan, while Bostic and Vaccaro are stuck behind D.J. Williams and Roman Harper/Malcolm Jenkins respectively. As sure as the leaves change color and I spend every Sunday night torn between SNF and Breaking Bad, these young studs will turn into fantasy gold over time. But for Week 1, it might be worth playing a more established player who is less likely to be intimidated by the bright lights, and more likely to be on the field for every down.

Downgrade Injured Players, Even If The Injuries Are Minor

If a Runningback is listed as Probable, you’ll wait to see if Schefter says he’s playing, and then start him without thinking twice. On defense it’s a little different. A starting RB is likely to get a full load of carries as long as he is playing. But if your Linebacker has a minor injury, his coaches are much more likely to limit his playing time if they can. This means that three-down LBs become two-down LBs, and other players will see their snap counts drop from their usual level. Less snaps means less opportunities to rack up stats, which obviously means less value. If you have a bench option that is completely healthy, they might be a better choice than banged up starters like Anthony Spencer, Jairus Byrd, and even Patrick Willis.

So without further ado, here are the Razzball Week 1 IDP Rankings:

Disclaimer: For these and all of my rankings, I am assuming a balanced IDP scoring system with a 3:1 ratio of sacks/interceptions to solo tackles. If you have any questions regarding your league’s specific settings, please ask in the comments.

I can look into expanding these in the future. For DBs especially, when you get past the top 25 or so it’s really splitting hairs. But I’ll try to get at least 50 at each position into my Week 2 ranks.

For Byrd/Miller it depends on how the rest of your roster is constructed. I don’t mind having one injured/suspended guy on my roster but wasting two bench spots on guys who won’t see the field for the foreseeable future is tough. I’d dump Byrd for Nelson or McDonald, but hold Miller for now unless you have a guy like Gronk or Justin Blackmon on your offense as well.

@Kevin Kumpf: thanks kev! i probably will go ahead and switch out byrd for nelson or mcdonald like you suggested, thanks! quinten mikell is also out there, and he’s kind of intriguing.

if you have any thoughts on reid, i’d love to hear them. in my league, we use 11 idp, and i usually load on at lb, so i have like 5 db’s: morgan burnett, reid, vaccaro, and searcy, with a gimpy byrd that i’m about to upgrade to a healthy body. i will admit i dropped mcdonald for reid the other day, but i’ll go pick him back up and forgive myself. : /

I like Reid’s talent, but I’m skeptical on his ability to get tackles. With Bowman, Willis, etc in front of him, it puts a bit of a ceiling on his performance each week.

You’re obviously set with Burnett, and Searcy should produce with Byrd out, so I’m all for supplementing them with upside guys like Vaccaro. I have no problem with holding Reid for now, because I’m hoping he proves me wrong.

I like Burfict. He’s by far the best LB in Cincy, and he should get three-down duties from the start. Carter produced last year, but his best weeks were after Sean Lee got hurt. With Lee in the lineup, it takes a lot of potential tackles away from Carter, so I’m much lower on him this year.

Just curious if you would do anything with this group of IDP players. It is a ten team keeper league where we keep four. Of course all of my keepers were offensive players. After being burned in this league before after undervaluing taking IDP players with relatively high picks, I altered my strategy. I decided to take some high tackle and sack guys instead of offensive players who would give yawnstipating stats week in and week out.

Kuechley,Bowman,Burnnet,Barron,Watt,Allen, with Wilkerson and Sean Lee on the bench.

My questions are, would you drop any of said offense for another DB for my bench (Patrick chung is avail) And in a 12 team PPR format, do you think this team has a shot at a title. Its a money league and I sure would like to win. Thanks a lot for the insight every week. Not a lot of IDP coverage out there, and you sir have given me the best advice to date. Thanks again.

That’s quite the team, and it absolutely a title contender. I like Pat Chung a lot, but I’m not a huge fan of carrying backup DBs unless they are high-upside rookies (Vaccaro comes to mind). If you were to drop anyone, I’d let go of Davis or Sudfeld, because I don’t like carrying multiple TEs if I can help it.

Yessir, I would put Bradham right outside my top 40 this week. When we see how Buffalo handles its three-down rotation, that will clear things up a bit between Bradham and Alonso. For now I’m leaning towards the upside of Alonso, but Bradham could definitely take the top spot in that LB corps.

So, I see Brad Jones has that always awesome Q tag by his name. Players being limited always worries me. Say he does play, should I insert Ogletree over him? 14 team league, settings pretty standard, and we can start up to 4 LB in this league. Thanks.

I got Bowman Greenway Kendricks & Alonzo. I can only play 3. Not a big play league so I was actually thinking of sitting Bowman. I know that sounds crazy but there are a lot of new faces in NE to get short yardage work that may not have the same athleticism as previous years players. & I still think he is going to score a lot in garbage time. I’m just not feeling Bowman like I was last year. Has he been looking slower to you? & Mychael has about as good a match up as u can get against the Redskins

Ok. So your last post says to stay away from a rookie in there first game. And ball is a nice example except he wasn’t deemed a starter & Denver did say rbbc so it was unwise to make that gamble because even the worst of the experts said only if he can maintain blocks. I know Bowman is the proven player and I would no question except I keep looking at the Match ups that says GB not a good point producer for LBs

I see your logic with the matchups, but for Week 1 especially you gotta start your studs. Teams change from year-to-year, and GB just invested heavily in the RB position, so they may run the ball more than in years past. Bowman’s ceiling is likely lower than Alonso’s for the reason you mentioned, but I’ll always choose consistency over the lotto ticket. You picked Bowman early for a reason, don’t waiver on that confidence now.

The only way I’d start Alonso is if you went up against Peyton on Thursday (or DT/Welker to a lesser extent), and you’re now facing a huge deficit. At that point you might as well shoot for the stars.

@Kevin Kumpf: gotcha. Thanks for the advice. No luckily none of my teams went up against peyton & in fact I have a good start with welker. I’ll be going with Bowman. I am in a league with a guy (and I play this guy next week) that drafted Peyton #1 overall (those dominos led to me getting Charles at 6) and when the picks came back to him he snagged Ridley & Brees…. Good choices to have. I think his team is holding by a thread. The reason I’m telling you this story is he sat peyton in favor of brees.i think even grey would say sonofabench of He played football

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